Dragonball Z: Imperfect Cell: Discovery

What They SayHis name is Cell:A fleet of tanks roll into Gingertown to destroy the new threat, but Cell quiets the army’s attempt with one swift blow. Now it’s up to Piccolo to stop the monster, and his chances look slim. As Namek struggles to survive, Cell gives a full introduction! He’s actually an android, the ultimate achievement of Dr. Gero!(Episode 128)

Piccolo’s Folly:Piccolo has been badly injured from his fight with the android Cell, but he cleverly distracts Cell long enough to regenerate his stricken arm. Now Piccolo is ready for another round, and Krillin and Trunks have arrived for backup! With the odds quickly mounting against him, Cell makes a tactical decision – Run away!(Episode 129)

Laboratory Basement:Escaping the heroes, Cell strives to carry out his awful plan. By absorbing Androids 17 and 18 Cell can evolve to his perfect, unstoppable form! To save the future, Trunks and Krillin race to destroy Dr. Gero’s lab, while Piccolo and Tien search for the elusive Cell. But how can they stop an android who knows their every move?

The Review!The vague threat of the mysterious creature becomes real as Cell handily provides us with his full background story, and the Z-Fighters attempt him to engage in his desire for backwards compatibility.

Audio:Audio once again is limited to the horrid English dub, and there seems to be little in the way people can do to get Madman to change this for TV episodes at least. Either you accept it and cringe at the dub, or import and cringe at the bad Aus to US dollar conversion rate.

Video:The video is of the same serviceable quality as always, neither terribly bad, nor extremely good, your basic straight as an arrow NTSC to PAL conversion.

Menu:The menu follows recent Madman DBZ trends, an animated main menu in the style of History of Trunks/Bardock discs with options to play the opening, each episode, the end credits, view the extras and “hidden” local authoring credit. On the right we have the images of Cell’s various stages of development taken off the top of the rear cover fading in and out, with the blue toned animated section displaying scenes of Cell preparing to fire a Kamehameha. While nicely animated, it unfortunately seems to be at the cost of a screen selection page. Also instead of directly going into the US “DBZ is next” clip and the opening like the previously used style, it heads straight for the menu, allowing you to avoid the opening entirely if you wish.

Extras:There are a reasonable volume of so-so extras, with a promo for the official Australian Dragonball Z web site, character profiles for Cell, Trunks, Android 16 and Piccolo, with trailers for the Cell Saga, History of Trunks and Bardock specials. New extras please Madman, because apart from profiles for Cell and 16, these are just the old extras given a shiny new wrapper.

Packing:The front cover has Cell grabbing Piccolo in a bear hug about to stab him with his tail, complete with speed lines! Along the top of the rear cover, we have images of Cell’s various stages from embryo, husk, insect, beefy bloke, and finally Perfect Cell, below which is the episode guide and screen captures for each episode. The Region 1 cover should look much the same, apart from lacking the Australian M15+ rating, PAL format tags and changed region globes denoting this as another dual 2 and 4 so it can be function perfectly on PAL systems in both in Australia and Europe. Inside we have an ad for History of the Trunks on the left, and Bardock Father of Goku on the disc side. The disc itself is setup to look like a dragon ball like all releases, though now it’s got gloss and shading to make it slightly better looking.

Content:This disc has about half an episode of action, and the rest is plot information. What’s interesting is that for once, one of the Z-Fighters actually has enough power to beat Cell right now, though of course he’s not going to sit around and let that happen.

Piccolo seems looks to be screwed when Cell begins to drain his energy, but not as screwed as the tank unit that attempts to blow up the monster. While Cell is much more powerful than Piccolo, he’s got the smarts of your stock evil-doer when he falls for the oldest trick in the book as he spells out his entire plan to Piccolo before he’s going to kill him, only to learn Piccolo was faking his injury.

He does have some brains though, as he realizes that Kami fused with Piccolo means no more dragon balls, and when Trunks and Krillin arrive he blinds them all with a Solar Flare and bolts for it when he’s outnumbered. While the Z-Fighters organize and plan, Cell proceeds to Niky town to absorb more victims.

Vegeta sets off to ascend to a level beyond that of a Super Saiyan, Piccolo and Tien search for Cell, while Trunks and Krillin head to Dr. Gero’s lab to find baby Cell’s little hidey hole. It won’t stop their Cell from his completing his evil plan, but it will save the future, and they get a lucky break in locating construction blueprints for Android 17. Those searching for Cell have no luck however, as they quickly find out that to keep up with the monster means flying at maximum, which gives Cell fair warning of their approach.